What's in a Song? In This Case,
More Than Lyrics and a Tune

Sony Music's World Cup Theme
Became a Diplomatic Tango

By

Gabriel Kahn Staff Reporter of The Wall Street Journal

Updated May 30, 2002 11:59 p.m. ET

"Let's Get Together Now," one of Sony Music Entertainment Inc.'s official theme songs for the World Cup, was supposed to celebrate new-found harmony between co-hosts South Korea and Japan. Instead, political overtones have, at times, nearly drowned out the melody.

Sony executives in Seoul, Tokyo and New York spent two long years battling bureaucracy and amassing an army of Korean and Japanese singers, musicians and...